NEWS

The Supreme Court will begin hearing on 40 death penalty cases from Tuesday. A circular in this regard was issued by the court on Wednesday (September 1), stating that these cases will be listed before three-judge benches starting September 7. The cases include the one related to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Mohammad Arif.

Arif alias Ashfaq has been convicted in the 2000 Red Fort attack case in which three people, including two Army jawans, were killed.

The list also includes four review petitions of convicts whose appeals were dismissed by the apex court after upholding death penalty. Several cases are appeals filed by the accused whose death penalty was confirmed by the respective high courts.

A simmering tension between the executive and the judiciary over what each perceives as an overreach by the other into its turf escalated on Monday, with the Supreme Court coming down heavily on the government for "not respecting" its views on the Tribunals Reforms Act and being unresponsive to its concerns over long delays in the appointments to the quasi-judicial bodies.

At one point, Chief Justice NV Ramana said the delays in appointments to tribunals have left the court with only three options. "We can either stay the Tribunal Reforms Act or close down the tribunals…ourselves appoint the members or hand over the powers to high courts. And the third is that we initiate contempt proceedings."

A total of 72 per cent respondents of a survey think that Indian Covid vaccines are safe and effective against the coronavirus. However, 60 per cent of the respondents believe that Indian vaccines are at par with foreign Covid-19 vaccines.

The survey `Public Ki Awaaz Poll` was conducted by location-based social networking app "Public" to examine the extent of vaccine hesitancy. The poll garnered a total of 9,14,164 responses to find out the vaccine hesitancy. According to the survey, 8.8 per cent of the respondents expressed hesitation in getting vaccinated against the virus.

According to the aggregate estimates, a large chunk of respondents considers it safe to take the vaccine. Around 72 per cent strongly agree that the vaccines are safe & effective and over a majority of 60 per cent respondents believe that Indian vaccines are at par with foreign Covid-19 vaccines. Around 25 per cent of the respondents said that they`ve already been vaccinated with both the doses.

Three to five years of service in the rural areas should be made mandatory before giving the first promotion to doctors in the government sector, said Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu here on Sunday while speaking at the 11th Annual Medical Teachers’ Day Award Function.

He said 60 per cent of the country’s population lives in the villages and doctors should serve the nation with passion. “let that be your moral compass when in dilemma and always adhere to the highest level of ethics. If you can serve with a spirit of selfless dedication, you derive boundless and real happiness,” he added.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the need for better health infrastructure and asked the state governments to bestow special attention on this aspect. He also stressed on the need to increase the number of medical colleges while referring to the government’s efforts to bridge the gap in the doctor-patient ratio in the country. He said the doctor-patient ratio was 1:1,456 as against the WHO norm of 1:1000.